Getting e-mail from "banned" members who were not banned.

[Theater]

I have recently been getting e-mails from various members of my community who claim they have been banned through their IP address from the administrator which is me.

A couple of them shared similar IP addresses to those banned before including a moderator on my team who I know has never been banned. He messaged me last week, but the problem resolved itself. Now I have a person who says they are banned, and they have an IP address not even close to ones in my banned list now. I think there might have been one before with the same first 3 digits, but I removed that from the list.

Ugh, this is starting to get confusing. I only ban users with underage birthdays since I run an adult site so I don't want to clear the list to let people back in who shouldn't be banned. It would be easier if vbulletin created a script for adult oriented sites that would force users to enter in their birthdate, reject them if they were underage (under 18), and keep them out through, I suppose, a better IP banning method.

Thanks for any help rendered in advance!

[Steve Machol]

How would you force someone to tell the truth about their age?

[Theater]

You can't, I know that. But you'd be amazed how many still enter in their real birthdates which show them to be underage.

Anyways...my primary concern is the members being banned who shouldn't be banned...

[Steve Machol]

Check your banned IP addresses again and make sure they are separated by spaces and not carriage returns.

[Theater]

Okay.

Well I did hit enter after every IP entry to keep my list tidy and easier to read. I assume that is what is causing the problem, but what's the reasoning behind it?

[Steve Machol]

Not sure of the reasoning but the instructions are clear on this point:

IPs to ban:
IP Number Ban Lists: You may ban any IP numbers from registering and posting. Type in the complete IP number (as in 243.21.31.7), or use a partial IP number (as in 243.21.31). The BB will do matches from the beginning of each IP number that you enter. Thus, If you enter a partial IP of 243.21.31, someone attempting to register who has an IP number of 243.21.31.5 will not be able to register. Similarly, if you have an IP ban on 243.21, someone registering who has an IP of 243.21.3.44 will not be able to register. Thus, be careful when you add IPs to your ban list and be as specific as possible. As with the email ban list, put a space between each IP number. The IP Ban prevents anyone with matching IP number from registering and posting.

[sambo01]

wots ur site